High-deductible plans are expected to rule the health-insurance landscape by the end of the decade. According to a recent National Business Group on Health survey, large employers already consider consumer-directed health plans and wellness initiatives to be more effective at containing costs than shifting costs to employees.
A Rand Corp. study predicted that half of all U.S. workers with employer-sponsored insurance would have high-deductible plans within a decade, which could reduce annual healthcare spending by about $57 billion.
In theory, high-deductible plans encourage those with employer-sponsored insurance to become more prudent healthcare shoppers. In reality, consumers continue to wander aimlessly through a thicket of opaque prices, conflicting quality scores, and incomprehensible insurance documents.
Dallas-based Compass Professional Health Services is thriving amid the chaos.
The fast-growing company acts as a health-system concierge for employees by seeking out the best values for specific healthcare procedures, vetting providers for cost and quality. It helps members find in-network physicians and sets up appointments.
Compass has tripled in size in the past year. Eric Bricker , chief medical officer, expects that growth trajectory to continue for the foreseeable future. The company generates $14 million in annual revenue and has 152 employees, 1,100 employer clients, and 285,000 employee members. About 60 percent of its business is based in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Bricker said two aspects of local healthcare help drive Compass’ business: physician-service prices are highly variable, and DFW has a greater penetration of consumer-driven health plans that motivate patients to be more prudent about costs.
The company mines aggregator medical-claims data and public records to collect its information. It also uses its clients’ claims data if authorized by its carrier. Compass manually verifies prices.
Policyholders contact Compass directly when they want the company’s help. It charges employers $5 per month for each employee. Bricker said about 30 percent of a company’s employees contact Compass 2.5 times a year. A majority of the calls are about prices.
Prices for different procedures can vary widely. On the company’s blog, for example, it shows prices for a colonoscopy at three Indianapolis locations: the highest price was $2,632 and the lowest was $602.
Cyndie Ewert, director of benefits and HR services for Dallas-based Energy Future Holdings, said her company uses Compass because more than half of its employees have high-deductible plans.
“We’ve been steering our employees into high-deductible plans and health savings accounts but we hadn’t given them the tools to be better consumers. By and large, they’re lost. It’s hard—even if you do this every day,” she said.
Steve Jacob is editor of D Healthcare Daily and author of Health Care in 2020: Where Uncertain Reform, Bad Habits, Too Few Doctors and Skyrocketing Costs Are Taking Us. He can be reached at [email protected].
